Flying Away
by Cassie Caine
Summary: Just your standard Heero/Duo angsty love story/gundam battle/suicide attempt type of thing.


Moetsukita chihei no karata  
Hitosuji no asahi ga kagayaku  
[Beyond the burnt-out horizon,  
A single ray of the morning sun is shining.]  
  
I get up from my slumber and glance around me. Bad idea. My head feels like  
it's about to split open, and my insides have turned to mush. I promptly  
turn over and vomit.  
  
When I'm done, I feel a lot better, like I've somehow managed to cleanse  
myself of all the stains on my soul by purging them from my body. But as  
I survey the ground under the rising sun, that feeling of... disgust comes  
back over me. Usually, I just push it away, because it interferes with my  
mission. But today, I don't have the strength to bury it. Today, I take  
the time to look around. The dawn seems troubled, somehow, and I don't  
blame it. The ground is scorched and blackened with soot and ash, and  
pieces of fallen metal gleam like tears on the face of the earth. What  
few trees remain are burned and charred, and there isn't one sign of  
life for miles around.  
  
So why am I still here?  
  
It was another battle, I know. Another mission. Another squad or five of  
Leos to take down. And I did it, too. I destroyed them all, like I was  
supposed to do. But I had to... I had to... what did I do that I can't  
remember, that I'm sitting here in the middle of a bloody battlefield,  
with this feeling of guilt and tears streaming down my face?  
  
Tears?  
  
Yes, I'm crying. I wipe the little flecks of crystal away from me angrily.  
I'm not supposed to cry. It's a sign of weakness. I can't be weak. I can't  
feel sympathy, or kindness, or mercy, or love. But I can't feel pain,  
or sadness, or guilt either. So why do I feel them now? What happened?  
  
*Just push it away,* I tell myself. *It will go away if you push it away.  
It always has before.* But I can't make it go away, this time. I try and  
try, but I finally break down sobbing. With that last barrier down, so  
many things come back to me...  
  
Instead of sitting in some field of burnt earth, I'm sitting in the ruins  
of a small town. I'm holding a little puppy in my hands. It's dead, dead  
by my own hands. The puppy's owner, a little girl, is dead too, but I can't  
find her body. So I settle for burying the puppy. I even decorate the grave  
with a few flower petals I found blowing across the empty, rubble-filled  
streets. But they see me... they see my compassion... and they drive it out  
of me. They drive it out of me so that I don't feel anything at all. I am  
the perfect soldier now.  
  
Now I'm falling to Earth, my mission a failure. The enemy has seen me. It  
wasn't hard for me to plunge myself into the sea. Why fear death when  
you've never really lived? Yet still, I'm alive. My training had been too  
good. Mere water won't kill me. Then she finds me... And for some reason,  
she puts herself in between me and that infuriating pilot. Sometimes, I  
almost wish she hadn't, and that he'd killed me then. It would have been  
a far easier fate than what he did to me later.  
  
When I slice the carrier that was transporting those leaders in the Alliance,  
I expect another mission completed. Instead, I find I've just made things  
difficult for myself. In my first true failure, I killed those desiring  
peace. Damn Oz. They tricked me, but I shouldn't have fallen for it. I'm  
the perfect solider! KUSO!!!! So to make up for it, I set out to disarm  
the missles that will destroy the base and the civilians in the area.  
Another suicidal attempt, but it was my way of making up for my mistake. I  
succeed, of course. Later, I will go out to each of the families of those  
leaders I killed, hand them a gun, and ask for their justice. None will  
give it. But I deserve to die.  
  
It is that type of thought that leads me to self-destruct my Gundam. She  
was going to blow up the colonies unless we surrendered. But I couldn't  
hand over my Gundam to the enemy. So I pushed the button without a second  
thought. I was supposed to die then, too. But again, my training had been  
too good, and I survived. I heard later that the other pilots were moved  
by my example, and wanted to become as strong as me. I wanted to scream at  
all of them, tell them I wasn't strong at all, I was weak, too weak to  
resist even an order to end my own life. But I am the perfect soldier, ne?  
I don't question orders, and I don't show weakness.  
  
I must have tried to self-destruct again last night. Yes, that would explain  
my current physical state. But why did I self-destruct? I was obviously  
winning the battle. Which is odd, considering the five squads of Leos. I  
must have had some help.  
  
Oh, yeah. I accidentally killed my help. That's why I self-destructed.  
  
What he did to me... I don't know how he did it, but he wormed his way into  
a heart I thought I buried with that puppy long ago. Heh. Well he is always  
claiming to be Shinagami, the god of death. I suppose it wouldn't be beyond  
his power to resurrect a dead heart or two.  
  
I couldn't kill him. Instead, I rescued him when he should have been left  
to die. He was always creeping into my thoughts, even when I was supposed  
to be focusing on the mission. Somewhere down the line, I stopped being  
annoyed by this. I started to enjoy thinking about him. And before I  
realised it, I was in love with him. But I could never tell him. It might  
get in the way of the mission.  
  
But now look. What has the mission accomplished? Five squads of Leos, twelve  
per squad. Sixty people down in one night. And that's just one night, and  
just my body count. Thousands, hundreds of thousands lost to the war.   
Soldier and civilians alike. And those are just the dead ones - never mind  
the ones whose lives were ruined, and now have to keep on living without  
being alive, coping with having lost everything.  
  
And him. I've lost him. The most important thing in the world to me, and I  
threw it away so I could throw other people's lives away. I never understood  
that damn Treize and his ranting about honourable battles. His subordinate  
Zechs had the right of it - battles are dirty and bloody and brutal.  
  
Yes, now I remember why I tried to self-destruct. Better I go than I take  
any more people with me, be they guilty or no. They can't be as bad as me.  
I kill without feeling, even when I kill the one I love the most. The  
tears finally stop flowing; I'm out of tears. I cried them all long ago.  
  
I stand up and start looking around for something sharp. I want to see my  
Shinagami again.  
  
  
Kizutsuitemo egao o wasurenai  
Itsuka aeru ashita o sagasou  
[Even if you are hurt, don't forget your smile.  
Let's search for the tomorrow when we will meet again.]  
  
Oh man, what a headache! Woo! Geez, you'd think a jackhammer had invited  
all his jackhammer buddies to have a party in my head, and they'd all  
gotten smashed on tequila. And I'm sore all over. But I get up anyway,  
against my better judgement, and stagger around for a bit. Man, this place  
is *wasted*! Did I do this? Nah... Well, maybe part of it. I can't remember.  
The last thing I remember is...  
  
Him.  
  
I hang my face in my hands and drop to my knees, crying softly. Oh god, he's  
dead. We were fighting off some Leos, but there were so many. So many. And  
they kept coming. A sort of battle rage took over him, I guess. He went  
berserk, and started killing everything and anything that moved. A civilian  
carrier was trying to hurry its way out of the battle zone. He spotted it,  
and went for it. I yelled and screamed at him, but I guess either he couldn't  
hear me or didn't want to hear me. So I jumped in front of the blast. That  
was the last thing I remember of last night.  
  
Ah, my poor Deathscythe. You must be totaled, melted to scraps. But somehow,  
it doesn't affect me as much this time as when it was destroyed previously.  
I'm too numb to feel anything right now except for this big, gaping hole in  
my being. I wonder if his gundam fared any better. Well, this time he won't  
be able to use mine for spares. If I weren't already crying that thought  
would bring tears to my eyes. I bet I could still scrounge up enough scrap  
to fix it.  
  
But why? The pilot is dead. There was nothing left out here - nothing.  
Nothing but a bunch of twisted junk, looking like so many ugly scars on the  
Earth's face. God... god... He can't be dead.  
  
Maybe he isn't dead. Yeah, he can't be dead! He's the fucking perfect  
soldier! He jumped out of a fifty-story building and survived, dammit! He's  
got to be alive! I look around, and I can't see any signs of his Gundam.  
Well, that means either he's left without me, which I wouldn't past him if  
he was still in that berserk state, or he's been totally vaporised. I  
prefer the first option, because that means he might come looking for me  
when he's come to his senses. Probably not, though. He just considers me  
another part of his mission tool kit. If I'm broken, he'll get a new one.  
  
He's the first person I've loved who hasn't loved me back. And he's the  
first real romantic interest I've ever had, too. Yeah, I've got girls and  
guys both swarming all around me when I'm in civvies, and I've been on my  
share of dates and stuff like that. But you know what? I never even kissed  
a single one of them. They never meant more to me in any way other than an  
evening's distraction.  
  
It's kind of funny, really. All this time, people looking to me as the  
master of trists, of getting away from it all, when in reality I can't get  
away from anything! My past still haunts me. Solo, man, Solo... he was a  
great kid. I wonder if he can see me now? I know he'd approve. Particularly  
when I snuck aboard that ship that was carrying that Gundam. That was some  
sticky stuff. I had to use every last one of my tricks. But I got on, and  
somehow I just know that Solo was there, helping me. They asked me if I  
was Maxwell's demon. I told them I wasn't a demon.  
  
I am Shinagami.  
  
So instead of throwing me in the kind of prison with stone floors and bars  
on the windows, they threw me in the prison of missions. I had to protect  
people. Me, who had lost everything important already. Looking back, I  
guess that's the real reason why they picked me. They knew we'd have to  
die in these missions, die by our own hands. They wanted to make sure that  
we didn't have any ties that would hold us back. Oh, but they made a big  
mistake. I had one very big tie to keep me fighting. It wasn't some run-  
down colony, or even the memory of the church that kept me safe until it  
was destroyed. It was him. Love for him, and the constant struggle to see  
if he felt anything for me. It was a battle I never expected to be easy, so  
I always had something to do, something to try for.  
  
I gave him so many hints, subtle to obvious. I told him how much he meant  
to me, but all he'd ever say back to me was "Hn" or "Aa," and if I was  
lucky I got "Shut up, Maxwell." Ah, those three words. Funny how I longed  
to hear them, because it meant he heard me. It sounds pathetic, really, that  
I would humiliate myself and expose myself over and over, just to hear him  
brush me off like some insect. I guess I figured that maybe someday he'd  
get so frustrated with ignoring me he'd either follow up on that death  
threat of his or buckle under and fall right back in love. I always thought  
the first was infinitely more likely.  
  
But now he's either dead or abandoned me. I guess I lost, huh? Well, I  
guess it's about time I had a little reunion with Solo. We've got a lot to  
catch up on. I smile, thinking of all the people I miss that I'll get to  
see again.  
  
I start looking for something sharp. I want to see my perfect solider  
again.  
  
  
Sayonara, higashi no sora e tabidatsu tori yo  
Sekai wa itsumo omae no subete o tsutsumu  
[Farewell, you birds who set off into the eastern sky.  
The world will always embrace all of you.]  
  
As I wander, I see a flock of crows fly by me towards the rising sun.   
Strange, I didn't think anything alive would be out here. Fitting, though,  
that it's these ugly birds that accompany me on my little wandering. Then  
out of nowhere, a thought materialises in my head. Crows are supposed to   
carry the souls of the dead into the next world. I wonder if my beloved is  
among them? They certainly must have had a busy night.  
  
For some reason, I can't find any sharp pieces of metal, or rather, anything  
sharp enough to cut deep. I suppose I could snap my own neck. I ponder the  
mechanics of that for awhile, and decide I'd be better off impaling myself  
on one of those damned support beam poles that are lying around everywhere.  
But those are both a little hard to accomplish... I resume my task-at-hand.  
Ever focused on the mission.  
  
There's so much I wanted to tell him, but I just couldn't bring myself to  
say any of it. I wanted to tell him I listen intently to every last word  
he ever spoke to me, even when I look like I'm concentrating on something  
else. I wanted to tell him that I enjoyed it when he interrupted my work -  
he was so much more pleasant than The Mission. My day just wasn't complete  
without his inane chatter, and even though I pretended not to care if he  
was there or not, the truth is I couldn't live without him. And here is  
my opportunity to follow up on that... One of the birds has alighted on a  
piece of wreckage near me, and it seems to be watching me. I could swear  
it's been following me since I decided to kill myself. Maybe it's the one  
who is supposed to bring me over.  
  
I envy those birds. What a beautiful mission that must be, to carry souls  
to Heaven or wherever it is they go. Flying free on the wind... I realise  
that I've never flown in Wing just to fly. It's always been with a purpose.  
Everything in my life had some greater purpose. I never enjoyed anything  
simply for the sake of enjoying it. I wish he were still alive. He made me  
want to really live! After the war was over, I always told myself, there  
would be time to explore all of that. But it's too late now. The war may  
end soon, but my time is up. There were so many things I wanted to do with  
him, if he would have me. I even had a little platinum band set with a  
diamond, flanked by two little black opals that looked like bat's wings  
made for him. It wasn't an engagement ring, no, I'm not sure we could ever  
be married, but I was going to give it to him when I told him I would love  
him forever. Hell, maybe it *was* an engagement ring. Well, it's not really  
important now. He's dead, and soon I will be, too. I finally see something  
large and sharp sticking out of the ground in the distance.  
  
Soon, I will be free.  
  
  
Namida sae nakushita asa ni  
Mou ichido nanika ga hajimaru  
[On the morning when you have lost even your tears,  
Once again, something new will begin.]  
  
Sometimes I wonder if maybe he did love me. Once in a while, I would catch  
him looking at me. But maybe he was just staring with disdain at my hair.  
Sometimes, he'd brush the back of my neck passing me by. Or at least I  
thought he did. He could have been absorbed in his thoughts, and not really  
known where his hand was. Sometimes, his hand would rest on top of mine  
for a little. But maybe that was just his way of saying "Move your hand."  
I guess I'll never know. But what I would give everything to taste those lips  
just once.  
  
It hits me like a brick wall. I *am* giving everything to taste those lips.  
We're both going right to hell, I know, but maybe I can make a little deal  
and kiss him before we're sent to our eternal torments. I'm Shinagami, after  
all. But what if he doesn't go to Hell? He's an angel, in his own way. It's  
not his fault he's the way he is. And he's doing all of this for a noble  
purpose. I know that somewhere, beneath that cold exterior, he has emotions,  
and one of them has to be guilt. So long as he feels even the least bit  
sorry, he gets to go to Heaven. At least that's what Sister Helen used to  
tell me when I was really upset over some way I'd managed to hurt her or  
Father. It never lessened the extra chores I had to do or anything, but it  
was fair punishment, and I didn't have to deal with the guilt. I shudder  
at the thought of what my own personal hell would be - feeling those lips  
close to mine, hearing that angelic voice whispering in my ear, and never  
getting to kiss him or to know if he was saying love or hate. Hell is not  
knowing how the object of your complete, eternal love feels about you, and  
they won't tell you or give you any hints.  
  
I know when I fell in love with him. I could tell you the exact moment,  
right down to the last detail. It was December 17, AC 195. It was a Friday.  
Friday afternoon. I'd somehow managed to comvince him to go to a movie  
with me. I had to keep pestering him, but I guess he finally realised it  
would be easier just to see the damn movie than listen to me whine for the  
next few weeks. But the movie we were going to see had been taken out of  
the theatre the day before, and nothing else was playing at that time that  
looked remotely decent. So we decided to wander around a local mall for  
a little while. Odd, isn't it, how all this technological advancement has  
only meant better ventilation in those mini hell-holes left over from  
hundreds of years ago. We got bored quick, and went back to our current  
house. We were just chilling in our room, and I had put on some random CD.  
We were just sitting there... and then this song came on, and I started  
listening to the lyrics for the first time. "Remember these days." I started  
to commit the whole day to memory, knowing it would be important. Then,  
"I love you, love you." I was staring at him when I heard those words, and  
I knew that was how I felt. I've been his ever since, whether he knows it  
or not. So I'm going to go to him now.  
  
Oh, yeah. Suicide is the one sin you can't be forgiven for. So I am going  
to Hell, and that's that. But I can't live without my love. I'm sure this  
caring and forgiving God that Father always talked about will understand,  
and let me get a nice glimpse of him before he's taken away from me  
forever. I stop the tears that have been falling down my face all this time,  
and prepare to meet eternity. I finally see something large and sharp  
sticking out of the ground in the distance.  
  
Soon, I will be free.  
  
  
Oikaketemo todokanai mono nara  
Inochi kakete kono te ni tsukamou  
[If it is something you can't reach no matter how you pursue it,  
Catch onto this hand even at the risk of your life.]  
  
It's the tip of the wing of my Gundam. I can't believe it. That thing is  
finally going to be the death of me. That's the sharp object I saw.   
  
~  
  
It's the tip of the wing of his Gundam. I can't believe it. That thing is  
finally going to be the death of me. That's the sharp object I saw.  
  
~  
  
I walk closer, all the guilt of the years and missions sliding off my  
shoulders like so much dead skin. I can never see him again here, so this  
is my way out. My way to see him again.  
  
~  
  
I breathe a sigh of relief. My journey is almost over. I'm done chasing  
after him now, this is the last step. I stumble towards the piece of Wing,  
my body aching.  
  
~  
  
I stand next to the piece of metal, and put a hand on it to steady myself.  
It's real, all right. I grasp the skinnier portion of it to snap it off.  
But instead of cold metal, my fingers meet with soft flesh. I peer around  
the wing, ready to strike at whatever enemy survived this suicide mission.  
  
~  
  
I nearly collapse on the hunk of junk, and lean against it to catch my  
breath. Woo, what a walk. Now if I can just snap off a piece of the tip.  
Snap off a piece of gundanium, sure. But there's bound to be some kind of  
structure around it that isn't made of the cursed metal. I put my hand on  
the tip, and instead of cold, I feel warm... someone's hand is over top of  
mine.  
  
~  
  
I almost faint when I see who's on the other side of the wingtip.  
  
"Duo?" I whisper softly.  
  
~  
  
A face peers round the wingtip. I take a step back, shocked. It whispers  
my name, and I whisper back.  
  
"Heero?"  
  
~  
  
Perfect solider be damned. I throw myself onto him, sending us both to  
the ground, my arms tight around him. He's alive! He's alive! I've never  
felt happier in my whole life! Hell, I've never even felt happy except  
when I'm around him!  
  
~  
  
I am tackled to the ground by a vision of green cotton and black spandex.  
He's alive! I knew it! I knew something as pitiful as a baseful of Leos  
couldn't take him down. But what is he doing here? Well, it is his Gundam.  
My thought slow to a stop as I realise we're still on the ground, and his  
arms are around me.  
  
~  
  
Before I know what I'm doing, I'm nuzzling his neck and crying his name  
in between sobs I didn't know I had left in me. But these aren't tears of  
sadness, they're tears of joy.  
  
~  
  
I hear him say my name softly, choking on his sobs. I run my fingers  
through his hair, pulling him closer to me. I rock back and forth with him,  
calming us both down.  
  
  
We're alive. We're alive! And we're together!  
  
  
Flying away, kokoro no mama ni tondeyukitai  
Flying away, kimi no tame nara sora o kakeyou, flying...  
[Flying away, I want to fly away just as my heart leads.  
Flying away, for you I would race across the sky, flying...]  
  
I pick up Duo in my arms and twirl him around in the air. He's impossibly  
light for me. I can bend steel bars, after all. I'm grinning like a maniac,  
I know. I just want to toss him up in the air and follow him in a never-  
ending flight. But first...  
  
"I'm sorry," I choke out. "I'm sorry I messed things up. I thought... I  
thought... I thought I'd killed you."  
  
"Killed me? Nah! You can't kill me! I'm Shinagami, remember? If anything,  
I thought *you* were dead!" Duo grinned lopsidedly at me, bringing a  
genuine smile to my face as well.  
  
I set him down on his feet again, my arms still around his waist. He  
reaches up to me, and puts his own arms around my neck. I pull him in  
close, and we stay like that for minutes, hours. Neither of us really  
knows. Only when we break apart, the sun is almost risen. Looking into  
his violet eyes, I lose track of why I'm here, of war and rage and missions,  
and all of my being is about *him*. Nothing matters but Duo. I would do  
anything for him. I tell him so.  
  
He looks at me, surprised, as if after all of this he's still shocked to  
hear words of endearment come from my mouth. "Duo," I begin gently, "I  
know I haven't been very... affectionate... in the past, but I have... I  
have..." I stumble over the words, unable to get them out of my mouth. My  
brain is telling me this is counterproductive, but my heart is ready to  
burst.  
  
He reaches up and strokes the side of my face gently. He smiles at me,  
sweetly, and puts a finger to his lips. "You don't have to say anything,  
Heero. I know how you feel." Funny, how he seems to know that. I wouldn't  
think he *could* know that, unless... unless... unless he felt that way too?  
  
Finally, the last barrier is down. Finally, all those years of pushing  
away my emotions lose their effect. My brain stops fighting my heart, and  
they both come to an agreement: I should tell him how I feel.  
  
"Duo, I know I've been cold to you, but I didn't want to get close. I didn't  
want to hurt you, because I didn't think I'd survive for very long. I was  
going to tell you after the war was over." I fumble around, and somehow  
manage to find that ring. I slip it on his finger, and he looks down at it,  
then up at me, shock widening his eyes. "I've always loved you, and always  
will. You set me free, Duo Maxwell, and I would do anything for you, because  
you are the only one who has ever made me happy. Please, stay with me,  
wherever under the endless sky this war and our lives may take us."   
  
  
Sayonara, higashi no sora e tabidatsu tori yo  
Sekai wa itsumo omae o matte ita hazu  
[Farewell, you birds who set off into the eastern sky.  
The world is always waiting for you.]  
  
As he speaks those words to me, more than he's ever said at once to me that  
wasn't a mission briefing, I feel my heart stop and my breath catch. Then  
that ring, on my finger... It looks like a bat. Like a little white bat with  
black wings. I giggle a little, then look back up at him, incredulous. Does  
he mean all of this? I guess he does.  
  
"Heero, I will stay with you. I love you." The words are out of my mouth  
before I even think to say them. I turn my head up a little to gaze at him,  
and his eyes are blue wells of love and compassion. Not even a hint of the  
old coldness and ice lies in them. He moves closer to me, and before I know  
it his lips brush mine. But he's unsure. He's never kissed anyone before,  
either, I know. He tries again, but he doesn't seem to really know *how*  
to kiss. I've watched enough movies, so I give it a try... part my lips a  
little, and take his in mine... And we are kissing. Heero is my first kiss.  
  
Wow.  
  
He takes a step back, and takes my face in his hands. The crows fly overhead,  
resuming their journey. But there are two less souls for them to take now.  
I watch as they disappear into the sunset. Heero is watching them, too, and  
I know he had that same thought I did about the crows when they first  
appeared over our heads. I thought they might be carrying his soul... and  
I can see the relief finally flood his being as he realises once and for  
all that this isn't a dream.  
  
  
Flying away, kaze ni nakarete tondeyukitai  
Flying away, kimi no tame nara jiyuu ni nareru, flying...  
[Flying away, I want to fly away, drifting on the wind.  
Flying away, because of you I could become free, flying...]  
  
It's not a dream. It's not a dream. It's real. Duo's here, and he's mine.  
But, something doesn't sound right about that. I'm here, and I'm his. There,  
that's better. Did he know he owned my heart all this time? He's the only  
one who ever will.  
  
So now what? As much as I'd like to, we can't lie here forever. This is the  
middle of a war. I prop myself up on my elbows, looking down at that little  
impish face with its perpetual grin. "We have to go, koi. We can't stay  
here."  
  
"But how can we leave? Your gundam doesn't look like it's in any shape to  
go anywhere. At least we won't have to worry about the enemy finding them!  
You don't have to self-destruct this time around! Trowa told me once that  
you said it hurts like hell. I hoped it wouldn't." Duo suddenly clamped his  
mouth shut as those words left his mouth. He turned his head away, as if  
hiding something. But I saw the look in those eyes. In a moment I understand.  
He was headed for this little piece of metal for the same reason I was. I  
turn his face back to me, and look him in the eye, frowning.  
  
"Don't ever think about doing that again, koi. The world needs you alive  
more than dead. Even..." I fight to spit out the words. "Even if I'm not  
in it. I'm nothing compared to the millions who still need your help." I  
know I'm crying again, this time a mixture of sadness and happiness. Sad  
because the thought of him taking his own life breaks me in two, but I'm  
happy because he's still alive.  
  
"And you, Heero? The world needs you, too. *I* need you. You're all that  
matters to me. So don't you try to self-destruct again, you hear? I just  
won't allow it." He grins at me, and I know he knows why I'm here, too.  
  
I stand up, and offer a hand to pull him up. On my feet, I remember just  
how much we were injured. He starts to stumble, and I help steady him. I  
think this is how I always wanted it to be - me, a support for him, so  
that while I may fall he would never get the smallest grain of dirt or  
blood on that pure soul of his. I look around for some means of escape.  
Hmm... there's the head of Wing. It's still intact. And it's the right  
distance from this tip, too. I wonder if...? I walk over to the head,  
still carrying Duo with me, and press a button on the outside panel. There  
it is, the little escape hatch down to the cockpit. I insist that he go  
down first, so he does, too tired to argue. I close the hatch behind me  
and settle into the familiar pilot's chair. It's not that badly damaged -  
at the very least it will take us to the nearest sign of civilisation.  
  
I start up the machine, hearing all the familiar whirrs and clicks. Duo  
is sitting on the floor next to me, smiling contetedly, eyes closed. Soon,  
I command the gundam to stand, and all the scorched ground falls off of  
it and we are free of the clutches of the earth. It's gleaming in the  
sunlight, I know, but I could care less. The warmth from his smile is all  
I'll ever need again. I pull a few levers, and Wing transforms into bird  
mode. If he hadn't been here... I wouldn't be here, either. I'd be a mess  
of blood and flesh on the ground. Instead of being bound to the earth, I'm  
in the air, flying away with him by my side. He has finally set me truly  
free, and I fly us off the way those birds had gone, not caring anymore if  
we do reach other civilisation, off into the rising sun. 


End file.
